Cuomo Accuses Democrats Of 'Corruption' Over Amazon Deal

NEW YORK — Gov. Andrew Cuomo escalated his fury over the death of New York's Amazon deal on Friday by accusing his fellow Democrats of "corruption" — even though his spokesman says he didn't.

Cuomo railed against state Senate Democrats for appointing a fierce critic of Amazon's plans for a massive Long Island City campus to an obscure state board that may have held sway over part of the project's economic incentives. The online retail giant said it was abandoning its plans last month.

"I believe the tactic on Amazon violated the law, and I believe it was a form of government corruption," Cuomo told reporters. "And I want to make sure it doesn't happen again."

Senate Democrats nominated Sen. Michael Gianaris to the Public Authorities Control Board, which must approve project financing for 11 public authorities. Among them are the two sub-entities of Empire State Development, which offered Amazon up to $505 million in grants to build their sprawling complex.

Cuomo said the threat of Gianaris taking a seat on the board was "one of the main things that killed the project" because he would vote against it. The governor argued that would be improper because the panel is only supposed to decide on a project's "financial sufficiency," or whether the agency backing it has the "financial capacity" to see it through.

"They exceeded the legal authority of the position," Cuomo said. "The position is not, 'I don’t like it, I — my sister lives too close to the project, it’s politically not helpful.' The PACB is only the financial sufficiency."

Cuomo tried to underline his point by having his counsel, Alphonso David, read part of the law governing the board.

But the governor said he was not calling for an investigation into the matter because Gianaris was never actually appointed to the board. Additionally, Cuomo's administration had said the board would not have to approve the hefty capital grant, according to news reports.

The governor's corruption comments seemed to raise eyebrows among reporters in Albany. Cuomo's administration has faced its own corruption scandals — one of his former top aides, Joe Percoco, was convicted of accepting bribes last year.

But a spokesman for Cuomo sought to clarify his remarks, saying that he wasn't actually lobbing an allegation of corruption.

"To be clear, the Governor wasn't accusing the Senate Democrats of corruption," the spokesman, Rich Azzopardi, said in a statement. "He was making a point about how the process works and the statutory role of the PACB. We are working with the Senate Democratic Conference toward an on-time budget that works for all New Yorkers."

Mike Murphy, a spokesman for Senate Democrats, had a one-word response to Cuomo's comments: "disagree," he tweeted.